When our parent company first started PC Disposal in 1997, there were very few
competitors. Since then, it seems like there are new computer recycling firms starting up
every week. And with such intense competition it’s inevitable that a few bad apples
have figured out ways to cut corners or trick clients into using their services. Much of
our business now comes from companies that once used these less-than-legit computer
recycling companies. However, we thought it would be nice to spare you the school of hard
knocks by letting you know upfront what these little tricks are:

Trick #1: Luring you in by lowballing the bid.

This little trick has become so common that even otherwise legitimate
computer recycling centers are starting to use it. They offer an incredibly low bid on
your equipment just to get your business. However, there are a few small charges that
can’t be “quoted exactly” until they complete the work. Sometimes these
charges aren’t even mentioned except in the small print of the contract.

The result: Bloated fees you
didn’t even know existed. Once you get the bill you realize that your “lowest
bidder” may actually be the highest bidder.

Protect yourself: Always analyze the total cost to remove, ship and process your
equipment. Make sure the agreed upon rate contains all recycling costs. Read your contracts carefully. Also, be sure you are comparing apples to apples
by analyzing what each computer recycling firm is offering for the money (click here to view PC Disposal’s services).

PC Disposal introduces"No Surprises" Pricing

In response to the
pricing games being played by other computer recycling companies, PC Disposal is proud to
announce that we are the first computer recycling firm to offer "No Surprises"
Pricing (NSP).* That is, we bid using a flat recycling fee per unit plus any extra services that YOU CHOOSE
for each type of equipment. NO HIDDEN COSTS. NO SURPRISES. Plus, if the market for recovered raw materials is high enough, we will REDUCE your per unit cost to reflect the difference.

* NSP covers recycling costs only. Bids that are weight-based will be estimated because there is no way to verify weight until equipment is received. We offer a best-efforts estimate for shipping and handling; however, because we cannot verify volume, weight or how equipment was palletized, the final cost may vary from the estimate.

Trick #2: Offering free computer recycling services.

For this trick, so-called computer recyclers promise to do everything the
competition does and they’ll even do it for free. They claim that they make their
money by reselling your old equipment. This is the most dangerous trick that can be
played on an unsuspecting business.

To understand why this so dangerous, it helps to understand just a little about how the
computer recycling industry works. First of all, just like the fly-by-night computer
recycling companies, legitimate computer recyclers make nearly all of their profits from
reselling your computers. Very little money is made on properly preparing your computers
for disposal or resale because of the labor-intensive tasks involved (e.g., asset tag
removal, sanitizing or destroying hard drives, EPA compliant disposal, etc.). This means
that if a computer recycler isn’t charging a fee for processing, they are losing
money on every computer they aren’t able to sell. The more computers they process,
the more money they lose.

But why should you care if your computer recycling firm is making a profit? Here’s
why: Let’s say that your computer disposal company is only able to resell 20% of
your computers (a good estimate considering computer obsolescence and the glut of used
computers). Now, ask yourself why they would bother to properly dispose all of those
remaining computers when they know they will start losing money on each and every unit
they process.

The result: If you guessed that those remaining computers will probably be dumped
into a landfill without being processed, you’re right. But what are the chances
that someone will actually try to find your computers to recover sensitive data on your
computers? Expect your odds to be 100% against your company. Identity thieves,
environmentalists and privacy watchdogs are constantly combing through landfills,
wreaking havoc on businesses that haven’t properly disposed of their equipment. And
extracting private data from hard drives is easy, even if they’ve been
reformatted.

For example, we recently had a representative from a city government ask us to bid on a
computer disposal project. He was impressed with our services, but couldn’t
understand why we couldn’t offer the services for free like their last vendor. Of
course, we were curious and had to ask why he just didn’t use the previous computer
recycling company. His answer, “Well, we had a few privacy problems....”

Protect yourself: While you should always be suspicious of computer recycling firms
that don’t charge, it always doesn’t necessarily mean that those who do
charge are much better. Put in a little due diligence. Is the recycler certified by a third party like R2 or e-Stewards? How long has the company has been in business. Fly-by-night computer recycling companies
don’t stay in business for long because the victimized companies usually start
hitting them with lawsuits. Unfortunately, they usually just close up shop and start
again under a new name. Also, be sure to ask for references.